I call to order of this regular meeting of the brona Town Council for Monday the 26 February M cler would you please read the open public meetings act notice requirements of the open public meetings act be satisfied expected at meeting of council the meeting time and date were included in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link telephone call and information said notice and the meeting agenda was posted in the municipal building and sent to the official newspapers of the township the Verona City gr time in the St lger at least 48 Hours proceeding the start time of this meeting the agenda and handouts can be viewed online at Barona nj.org counil meetings will be compelled agenda and instructions on proved the appropriate thank you madam CL would you please call the all councilwoman Holland here Council McGrath here coun Roman here Deputy Mayor maoy pres mayor Toro pres they also present is Township manager Jody Oro Township Deputy Township manager Kevin Sullivan Township attorney Brian myself Jennifer thank you pleas stand States all welcome everybody um first for the mayor's report I'm going to keep my remarks brief as I've asked my colleagues to do tonight because we have a act agenda with the budget hearings the township manager Deputy manager will also only be briefing on any recent developments or any questions the council may have uh just so we can get into the budget piece in order to make sure that our residents can watch our videos in a and participate in our meetings in a good amount of time uh so my only item to note is uh this is restaurant so thank you to the Chamber of Commerce and our Municipal staff help to organize it it was wonderful to attend the kickoff at Jimmy's Family kitchen our newest restaurant that has been opened since Thursday um so please check them out uh at this time I'll call Mr Fen ason CJ good evening uh sorry I missed a few meetings but we had some sorry hit the Buton thank you very much well be back uh I'll be very brief um golf IDs if you're a golfer are available at Hendrick field and week breake park there March thir uh 3r not March Saturday March 2nd and there's a family outdoor uh school day at the Environmental Center and I won't hold up any more of your time this evening because we have FL schedule any questions or comments I give this FL thank you and look forward to seeing you again thank you J see that uh we do have two proclamations on the agenda this evening uh recognizing our lady of lake church and our Lady Lake School their 100th anniversary uh being a large part of Verona for the past Century uh so this is an exciting Milestone um and this I read both proclamations and then when we're done we'll bring everybody who's here from LOL up and uh a picture with the council the first is for the the church uh whereas in the late 1800s and early 1900s the Catholic residents of Verona traveled to Orange and Belleville later to Caldwell and Montclair to attend mass and other services and whereas on July 14th 1923 the most Reverend John o j o Conor Bishop of Newark gave the initial sanction and official approval was granted by the establishment of church the resident Pastor for Corona's 150 Catholic families whereas in September of 19 23 the first mass was offered in brona at a temporary location in the High School auditorium and just four months later on January 20th 1924 the Reverend James J Kelly AR lak's first Pastor broke around on the Lakeside Avenue uh building for claiming this church will be a power for good in the community whereas just six months later in June of 1924 the first mass was celebrated in the new AR Lady Lake church building and Father Kelly continued to serve as a pastor for 19 years whereas for 6 months later in June of 1924 I'm sorry whereas in uh 1963 a larger church was designed in a traditional cross shape with a seaing capacity of 1,300 and celebrated its first mass in Christmas Eve midnight m in 1964 and whereas the Reverend John McDermot was named administrator in May 1974 succeeded by the Reverend James Riley in 1976 until 1977 when Reverend Timothy foran was appointed Pastor serving the parish until 1994 whereas in 1994 Reverend Michael Hanley joined o and would serve parish for 20 years whereas following father Mike's retirement in 2014 brother Jo Miko guided the parish until 2019 when the current Pastor Father Peter Worley joined o during the covid-19 pandemic Father Peter implemented live stream Mass services whereas our entire Community has benefited from the charity and influence AR Lake Church has exerted through the years and the many facets of its Outreach and practical assistance to the needy whereas it is a pleasure to extend this expression of my esteem and best wishes to the members of this congregation on the memorable occasion of this 100th anniversary now therefore be able to claim that I Dr Christopher tamboro mayor of the township Verona urge all residents to join together in recognition and appreciation the members pass the present of our Lady L church with a commitment and contributions to our enre sendic community and when is whereof I appear onto set my hand and cause the Great Seal of the township of Verona the county of ESS state of New Jersey to be affixed on this 26th day February 2024 and school whereas Our Lady Lake School opened in 1924 on Lakeside Avenue under the leadership of priest of the arch dasis of Newark and the Dominican sisters of calwell to continued the tradition of educating and teaching the word of God and whereas the first graduation took place in June of 1925 whereas in 1932 a new school building enthusiastically supported by the parish was completed to accommodate the ran Catholic Community oras the number of students steadily increased and in 1952 in response to this increase in New School building the mantros building was completed and whereas when the new church was completed old church became the gymnasium and the LA the auditorium and whereas our lady the Lake School Prides itself on its alumni base including our very distinguished Deputy Mayor and in 1999 the 75th anniversary of the school was celebrated with community and the many alumni who walked its Halls whereas in 2002 2012 and 2021 Our Lady Lake School received middle States accreditation and reaccreditation whereas Our Lady Lake School has been recognized the United States Department of Education blue Ribbon School of Excellence award in 2011 and 2017 whereas the school Remains the Forefront of curriculum of Technology can use to instill each of its students Christian values and service others whereas Our Lady Lake School remains part of the fabric in diversity of the Verona West Orange communities as well as the West s area and whereas it is a pleasure to extend this expression of gratitude to the Educators administrators families of all school on the memorable occasion of this 100000 iary now therefore be a Proclaim that I Dr tamboro mayor of the Town Verona commend and recognize our lady the Lake Catholic School its faculty students and parents for their Century of dedication to education devotion for the community of Verona and wish them another 100 years at least of academic Excellence as one of the very treasured pillars of our community winess whereof I hero to set my hand and Clause the Great Seal of the town of Veron in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to be fix on this 26th day of February 2024 congratulations to all principal Representatives would like to come up populations here there is the smallo and church our administrations on the side we have any o members cl bring everybody in on don't shy even if you're not here you if you're here for another department come on all right come on squeeze and act like know each good keep smiling keep smiling I'm just gonna keep clicking I can't then is will say that all the church members are welcome to save for the budget hearings but I didn't get them quickly enough that all right uh this point the mayor's report is included we going to turn over to in an effort to speaking Council has any question questions Mr okay deal I will take questions I'll be happy to answer thank you just so the public is aware they're providing the detailed reports that uh to view and we'll provide additional updates the the next meeting um okay we're going to move on into the budget presentations Madam Chief Financial Officer hello okay yes I'm GNA swap up there okay um let's see if thats that M will be showing us on the zoom but we'll get started while that's okay 2023 result of operations last year um we had 90 over 99% in collections we consistently have about 98 and 99% in uh collections over the last few years I'm going to move quickly if that's okay just stop me if you me to uh miscellaneous revenues or 2023 top mun uh miscellaneous revenues or interest of deposits uh our con construction code our Tower leases the court parking meters uniform fire and safety fees and permits Community Center rentals and Recreation fees uh the percentage is what we budgeted versus what we received our expenses uh our garbage and our recycling contracts been finalized in 2023 as you know we went out to bid in 2024 our health contract uh slightly increased in 2023 and will slightly increase in 2024 um due to the lack of snow a lot all of the money that was um budgeted in Street and Highway for snow has been transferred over to the storm trust um and again my department heads always do an excellent job I try to whip them into shape um they will they will attest to that yes um in their budgets excuse me go ahead I have um so how do you define the health contract slightly increasing what what I'd have to pull out the contract I can do that for you when we're at the health Fortune okay okay thank you memorize all of them our 2024 proposed uh Municipal budget summary is here um which is similar in comparison to what you have in your budget booklets um but this is more for the public to see you want me to go back I know I just a quick question so what is the rationale to keep fund balance the same because we're going to be using more ARP funds okay we'll get to that um later in the slides um and I'm not sure which slide it's on but we're going to be using more ARP funds um instead of increasing fund balance here is a budget comparison from 23 to 2024 and the changes um in property values slightly increased um the average property tax will increase I don't know what that's showing as a percentage it should have show as a dollar figure I'll have to update that um and the assess valuations changed as well here's our tax history from 2018 through 2024 uh where you can see all of the percentage increases from each year 2024 um most of our obviously um budgets increase and um expenses increase but these are some of the larger items um our general insurance through our GIF uh is up about 16% um our employee medical benefits is up we have um our medical bill has increased by 9% but also we have um employees that are now full-time versus part-time um that I will get you that comparison I'm finalizing that now um from prior year to this year of the employee change our police pension went up um slightly our legal installments which is our bond our debt payments went up and I have decided to increase the capital Improvement fund to support additional uh capital projects by 50 000 if I just for a question for the administration just as a followup I'm curious just going a level down on the medical increases I also thought we were going to make some sort of change to the prescription drug coverage and I know we changed some of the vendors we used to help navigate our medical and dental so I would like a little bit more detail um you know um you know as a followup on the metal clone um just understand a little bit more what's I think um we have received our latest quotes for I believe it was Dental came in prescription is coming okay we that okay this point comparison the uh the state we that counting any increases in what we're actually providing s sare here is a breakdown of um what the taxpayer is paying on an annual basis and a monthly basis uh for each of the services listed um Public Safety capital and projects uh Public Works utilities Administration Communications library and some other miscellaneous Services fall under this any question question last year when you break down the public utility gen recycling we separately build for our water and sewer that's not what you're inating there water and sewer is not in public utility is that our electric bills that's our electric bills yes maybe we could be a little bit more clear on that okay there's a breakdown historically uh Municipal and Library ess6 County and Verona Public Schools um schools are about Municipal and libraries about 33% and Essex County is about American Rescue plan funds uh we were given $1.4 million split between two payments of over 700,000 each in 2022 we spent 396,000 in our current fund was 336 and our pool fund uh was 60,000 leaving a balance of a little over a million in 2023 we used $100,000 to supplement uh the the pool utility and in 2024 we are planning on using all of the remaining balance of 9 $5,000 um we're proposing $200,000 will go to our poll and 75,000 and change will go to our current fund looking forward a year after that are we going to have to basically make up spend $100,000 in following year these are not one time correct yes so can you just provide the detail because I know the funds were very precise and what they could be spent for so on in the current fund how are they being so we're using it as Revenue loss okay so that will supplement our Revenue side which will offset our uh our appropriation side of things instead of increasing fund balance okay so we are not going to go down the route of like a infrastructure project or not currently no okay open space trust fund um was originally established in 201 19 last year there was a referendum that increased it from 0.02 cents uh to three cents per 100 assessed valuation this year we're anticipating um because of that increase having $720,000 and I'm sorry $72,800 come in this year the average residential tax pund a little over $130 the tax increase you know we did this obviously because the fund was pretty much exhausted how much buffer do we have in funded this versus so we will be spending on our debt payments uh almost $770,000 still we're still under currently yes with a reserve from last year so we're not collecting enough we will be collecting enough we are currently not collecting enough this year for it but we will we have reserved money so it will it will be enough in the future in the future yes um after tonight we're going to have more discussions uh we're looking to introduce March 11th and have adoption uh April 8th so Switching gears we'll move before we on that does anybody have any final questions first um I'm going to be talking a long time so we're going to skip tabs uh one two and three unless you want to go over some specific it's in Revenue um um you know I think a some summary of the resue would be good any highlights well I mean overall all of our um Revenue came in higher than what we anticipated in 2023 which is fantastic um so I mean that's the best summary that I could give you for that if you have questions specifically on a specific one I can give you more detail but um or we can you can email me and we can discuss regly um for the purpose of the council we will operate the same way we operate through special meeting after each section we'll hold off any question until the department head has done their section or the page and then we'll start deut mayor go down so we're a little more organized in our approach okay I may one on revenues re tax one of our favorite yes why does that look like that's even going to go down so it it may or may not I need some clarification so in 2022 we adopted our budget without having the municipal Relief Fund in there um is that the one you're talking about Municipal Relief Fund or energy rece energy rece tax it's going down by a small amount that just I don't they haven't released those figures yet so so yeah that's what it was um previously the last few years so I anticipated the same I want to know the number of what that should be if it would be paid out do the uh full formula I don't have that for you just be depressed okay we'll go to Tab four Administration I'll I'll try to keep it moving quickly um so salaries has increased from 211 to 292 and operating has increased as well from 9 7,000 to 1094 I will tell you that um some changes happen in the administration um in the administration uh tab we move postage out to finance and we move some um it stuff for public information officer into this budget and created some new budget lines which is why you see a lot of zeros at the bottom and nothing for postage in 2024 any any questions on on this page one this I guess perhaps Mr as well uh with the home writing specialist do we know how much we've actually gotten with the help of their services versus um that report is is in there will be provided sitting on C what we paid out and what we oh you have it on your okay I I read your report yeah that answer question you good moving on flip the page and then we get to you all getting no increase any any questions any questions on that one we the just the public aware that the combined salary of the $13,500 a year actually it's 13,238 not Fe yes uh the next tab is Administration and economic development uh increased slightly uh by $400 is this spent on a second was these sustainables in here that's what their budget is contracts services our holiday wreath install came out of commercial revitalization what was the other line that you mentioned contracts and services archive social renewal the field utilization study uh and the summary of that study it looks like and cell tower investigation thank no problem we'll move to tab five for the clerk this year as well um some changes happened in admin and clerk uh we mve some of the document well some of the um expenses and also split out some of the expenses and gave them each their own budget instead of having one um so clerk salaries was always separated out which you'll see at the top and at the bottom now the clerk will have an operating expense out of administration so that's why you see some zeros any questions on that sheet I just want to make a comment by May um so I know the administ the legal Publications is really like it's very costly and the cost keep going up so are we confident in this $8,000 budget estimate I've been told yes okay all right I know it's a lot and we do a lot of work which result in more legal Jen the increase in regular salaries is that uh there was a part-timer that went full-time which is why part-time is now zero and then regular is a full two salaries next page next page is um the elections Budget on the top um you will see what we spent well what was budgeted was a little over $100,000 what we spent was 90 and what we're proposing is 98,000 for for 2024 on the bottom Financial Administration is our audit uh we budgeted 65,000 we've spent so far 41,000 and we budgeted again 65,000 um just modification of ordinance I soon remember this as being something that is almost always a zero in actuals is this enal code or what this I always see this line and it rarely ever seems to get used um so it's usually pulled out of different um tabs um in administration it's not usually used specifically for codification which it could be right I mean under elections which seems like it would have you know well we pulled it there's been a lot of moving Parts this this year right so we pulled it out of administration now put it in elections um we could move it back we can move it to clerk it just kind of keeps bouncing around all over the place and developing a Clerk's budget remove those things that were cenal to the clerk the clerk's inputs should be an independent budget so those items that CLK had wanted to work on the codification right it's in one place can be found you're also deliberating over the local elections whether you're considering moving that or not to November that discussion is still on your table hope we adopt the budget there'll some decisions made what you want to go with that we don't have to make a decision for the 24 budget there but you have to do this year believe so you can cover it it's not part of the budget process so this $55,000 in here is actually should have it there do you want to come up um there could be a special election um the discussion of whether we move the council elections to November doesn't really impact this budget cycle at all so we don't actually have toig that this money is put in here for the purposes of uh holding this placeholder for a special election have a referendum or something like that that's M you have any questions yes so on that um we were our understanding was the local election in last May cost $45,000 how did we get to $82,000 for our local election is that what it cost two want to come up okay um so there seen expenses um and added up to that amount um currently working the county but I did have so we spent on the May election $82,000 I'm just I'm not like you know the county of Essex if that's what it ended up costing I just want to know the information so at that point that's where we're at on that may election and just for the public satification if we move the election to November it costs it what would that we would still would we still have some cost if we moved it or it would be part of normal election cost of 8,000 your budget's $88,000 for the November election that sorry $18,000 because we actually paid more in the primary election but the general election would be um costree unless we were to have a referendum that but was unforeseen and just overtime or sta um no just the comment that it is stunning to see the $82,000 spent on the local election um as compared to the cost of the general election um that being said I'm I'm glad to see that we had a fulltime a part-time employer go employee go full-time I think that's appropriate um I definitely think that we need to talk about the continuing cost of of the M local collections well go into a little bit greater depth on you know the overages how like just a little color on how we had a overage 25k overage um there's a lot of other we're seeing expenses with that um I wasn't aware of you know with the STA over time the county they preparing for municipal election and exp go along the back and their seasonal Health um food Publications that they did and rentals tent to get the everything like the materials back that night you I've always been kind of curious this is yeah maybe you talk about this but we have 11 districts here and some of them all pull at the same physical location but when I go into a polling place it looks like each district is staffed separate or they're like they're Staffing proportional to the number of districts I'm kind of curious for these elections which are you know relatively not busy you know the Personnel compliment that goes into running them seems kind of hot and just curious as what is the entire organizational structure of how these are driven and how you know so minimal you need uh for board workers to for any place or per District No per District but the reason why you don't want to mix a pole workers within one polling place that make be working more than one district is we need full accountability at the end of the night for the running of the El half day um Staffing or anything it's a full day so you have to have that many for that um of whether or not you think the election is going to be small or large but it's another accountability thing um because they all have to sign and oats and everything so this is kind of jumping away from budget I'm sorry but is there a reason why why you have like three districts that pull at the same place or why the districts themselves can't be Consolidated down into a single one if butting and there's a formula with that too um more people in the district needs more uh not more Staffing but more machines which means more Pole books the increase is going to go we're eventually going to go Le that's another uh electronic machine in the location but um it's the county that does the redistricting and the initial 11 districts we have was to keep one machine in each location for each um District you just need some kind of drill discussion with the county because again I think that there's there's got to be a cheaper way of running an election that me if you have three districts and you got at a location you've got four people per District you have 12 people Staffing a polling place that's State a state law yeah um but there are a lot of we could have a long discussion about things that a side part discussion about this yeah I think if we could have it's not obviously em Merchant um but if we could have maybe aake on exactly what the bu R down was what was staff what was personel but we have to pay the county how many staff we have for district and so on I think that would be helpful so there eies there as well um once again that's a an issue largely 2025 budget and not 24 next tab tab six assessor salaries in increase slightly as you could see and they're operating increased slightly uh George will not be here tonight but the only Capital expense that he foresees is doing another reval um his anticipation is around 2025 to 2026 would would be the time period for the Rev uh which obviously comes from the county they push um when that is supposed to be done our equalize ratio is around 77% currently um so he anticipates them pushing for a reel in the next few years do we have any figures on Val 500,000 okay moving to tab seven finan um salaries again increase slightly from 271 to 286 our operating change um from last year to this year because now we have hostage in it um otherwise our operation would have basically remained flat at the bottom our tax sale costs and um liquidation and foreclosure of properties um has remained the same it's $33,000 at the bottom I've adjusted tax sale costs we do an online tax sale um we pay $15 per property that goes to tax sale about a month out um from the tax sale we usually have 15 to 20 properties at that point in time so I reduced it from a, to 500 sorry thank you uh what is the Staffing like in your department we current in 2023 we had a lot of um movement um we had one retirement um and we had two people that um left Verona and got new new jobs in other places of business um so we hired um somebody who was in our office full-time um who currently is doing a billing um and then we hired another full-time person to do payroll so there are five including myself full-time Legal Services legal services so your last year the prosecutor was budgeted um in legal so that has been removed so there are no salaries now left inlegal on the operating side you will see that there's been um a slight increase between 2023 and 2024 that's just that appraisal line is the only thing we're seeing where we had nothing budgeted 7,000 did that come from some other line or uh I'm assuming that's like that HRI appraisals is PL in your that was um appraisals of properties not from Hendrick that we were looking into okay yes not for not not for other yeah not for yeah un anticipa yeah Municipal PT um so last year we had budgeted um salaries and operating expense our court as you know went to um shared service to North North colell so we are anticipating um we received a ejection from them um which reflects the bottom number on line 14 of 170,000 for 2024 so I think our move to the court was generating a net Savings of 100,000 that's the most recent one that we've received do you want to on that the previous number was around 130 from my recollection from December uh I okay so I think so which hours is about 56% of their operating and then also we should recognize that the employee benefits employes don't fall into projects savings outside of this budget inside of this budget yes planning board planning board um I as you may or may not know our planning board and Zoning Board secretary from last year um has left Verona uh we hired a full-time person um to to replace that salary so that's why you see the large difference I split that salary between planning and zoning boards since that person is doing both you will see at the top as a difference on the bottom you will see a increase we're anticipating um some members having to take some courses this year um I believe there's about four or five members that need to take courses board I'm sorry quick question going back um yes why the anticipated board attorney fees we got an increase uh the board attorneys last year their their fiscal year is July 1st through June 30th they got an increase for the second half of their um term okay believe they have didn't have an increase they did not yes zoning board um zoning officer we as you may remember last year the zoning officer was budgeted in water so that is an expense pulled back out of water see I'm listening listening to you guys out of water and put into the current budget um so that's why zoning officer is there um and like as you could see it's a a difference uh the secretary again is split between planning board and Zoning Board um which is why you see a difference there um they're operating expens State FL wrench leveling board wrench leveling board um currently we have an employee who is receiving a stip in of sorts um for for being the secretary so that is at the top um and then at the bottom they're um their operating expenses increase just slightly Communications okay um salaries increased slightly you have a full-timer and a part-timer there and on the bottom um as I explained in administration some of the items were pulled out of this budget and moved into Administration like vtv um and some of the other new public information officer uh lineups question uh I have actually have that up here by pi officer why wouldn't that be in the salard here uh that is in administration currently okay and then one other question real quick uh are BTV services at zero are we no longer we moved it to Administration so it's budgeted for 25,000 in administration now thank you thank you good counil and the communications PL is Sally Miss name this is basically it yes yes we can label that can can do that yes uh before that all fell under recor Administration did Communications all that all Chang yes okay tab 13 fire um they only have a operating budget um on the bottom you'll see that it was last year 147 950 um I've increased it to 157 based on what I was told from the fire department on their needs um I am still waiting last year the state of New Jersey released a cap for how much you can um contribute to a volunteer fire department I'm still waiting on that number so this number may change depending on what they say comes out in the cap I think that cap did it I don't think that applies if they're Municipal Department that only applies if they're nonaffiliated volunteer fire department so like some volunte their own corporations and have a contract with the town to provide services in this case Municipal Department I don't think that cap applies but I believe you're correct I'll check into that to make sure okay thank you um just to also clarify for the public the number was actually higher in 2022 budget actually went down last year and now it's basically being restored to what it originally was uh which is POS yes um they do have Capital requests if you would like to hear from them J welcome you just give us one minute to pull up our capital you build that's on you guys see the so there were three capital uh needs of the fire department currently that we're looking at and we haven't had any real Capital Investments the last several years we've just been going on our budget and that's you know part of because of Co and and other needs of the town but uh now we're in a need um we're requesting money for hose um we do our yearly hose testing our yearly hose testing will pull out any hose that fails but currently we have 68 pieces of Hose that's dated prior to 1990 that is going out of service that should not be used should be pulled according to NFPA it did pass the testing we are still using it we that it should be pulled that's 40% of our hose that we have in house okay I do have the reports here if you'd like to see it NP guidelines one year uh for volunteer departments it's a little bit more so we can catch it literally uh second piece of capital investment that we were looking at was uh extrication tools um it was about 15 years ago we asked take over the rescue side of the rescue Department uh we were given the rescue truck in all their tools um we did not get an increase in budget to replace those tools those tools are now expired uh lived past their life um we are currently borrowing tools from Ceda Grove who got a new set of rescue tools and their tools that they were replacement was better than what we had uh we had a cause for an extrication we were using our tools and we couldn't do it all on our own we had a call Cedar Gro in and they assisted us with the exact same tools that we were looking to buy so there is a need for those extrication tools so there's a set of extrication tools for both firehouses on the list uh third item that we put in for capital investment was um a software program for both firehouses to not only keep track of calls and attendance our call ratios uh but also keep track of um Piha items uh that became necessary um keep track of paperwork um keep track of uh inventory uh dates and times and reports uh just to make it easier to carry on and be able to to get things easily but we were doing things right they were just scattered and in order for it to be in one spot we're looking to get some software to uh to do and organize it there is also a further down the road plan that we're going to be needing a new fire truck uh one of our engines is coming du and with the town enlarging you know it's not like we can not you know put that on the back burner so there's also that um but that is which engine is that my engine 11 is our 2 uh our 2004 engine that's due to be replaced last one we bought was uh our last engine that we replaced was our 2 our 99 engine and that was four years ago last R yeah any questions one question to piece you said there was a set for each town we currently run we could run extrication from both houses when when we get called for Mutual Aid to these other towns we may if it's in One Direction it's from one house going to another direction we have to have the equipment that they carry also uh because we're going to be expected to do everything and anything that they do in their house so it would be two sets of extrication tools is this something you think we could phase in do one set one year one set another year break cost out a little bit we probably can we certainly will be open to working with that this is a budget meeting do you have a price to X on idea of um I don't have it with me $100,000 reest yeah for each the for 15 15 15K sof the software to your n reports and all that stuff for you is that all integrated uh it can be integrated to our ners report which is now being done for FEMA anyway so I have to see if that would integrate with FEMA nice to some time all yeah any other questions did you get us detail on uh those and L of quotes and the same thing with the exucation yeah I the quotes were were submitted or the H Le H quote and the so yeah all right all right thank you thank you did tab 13 and 14 last time around we did 15 last time around tab 16 construction code so in your salaries you have uh last year was budgeted 4135 we've increased it to 466 this year uh last year I will tell you I had a cap issue um so I moved some of the salaries from construction code to the interlocal to avoid the cap issue I'm sorry what the cap isue uh the 2% cap so I moved part of the salaries out and now I'm bringing them back inside the cap yes sir um since this department is actually a relatively complicated one um that has Revenue aspects expense aspects and Inter local agreement yes usually Mr Jacobson uh comes and tells us a little bit about operations for the for the Year this is one of the things I like to hear about because it it's a rather interesting part of our operation yes thank you good evening everybody well the good news is uh um total Department construction permit income for 2023 was 529,000 now the majority of that was uh the large increase was the result of the drona flats project the uh permit fees um we conducted three 8,057 inspections uh and we off also issued 664 permits and 181 permit updates and and so far we've just uh renewed the roswan shared services contract from 23 to 26 and we've been there 12 years now and it's going uh phenomenally well I think it's it's been uh mutually uh accepted and it's a mutual benefit for both towns mayor um also we are continuing to advance Green Technology in the building department uh support of sustainable Verona today we have 168 properties with solar panels and 83 car charging outlets in town and we're probably getting one to two a week as far as car charging so it's that it's just been exploding and it's been uh excellent and one of the highlights of the building depart is a hiring of the uh new uh zoning officer Kathleen M was here some of you have met her and I have to tell you finally I think Mr diar will agree we have stabilized the department uh because there's been a lot of um lot of turbulence in the last couple years I think would be the right word right Mr D um and I think the best thing is U Mr diar and I looked at our organizational chart and we had originally zoning was down by the sord plant and building was up by 880 and we agreed that you know what it needs to be to we need to be together as most municipalities excuse me municipalities have and as a result now the contractors can come a lot of times they have construction questions and also zoning questions and a One-Stop shop and also residents they get confused while they have to drive on the other side of town just for Z so that's been a plus it's been great farming as it is to go to the Super plan when you need something I appreciate the validation absolutely so if you notice the um the uh the line item budget uh the main driver on that one is line number five for file management as you can see it's uh 45,000 and our town clerk and I have been working hard to try and figure out ways and actually one of the good things with the zoning department moving up to my building is we're starting to purge old records to cut down on some of that cost through J's guidance and we really appreciate that that's always been if you take that out our uh our operating budget is uh 760,000 so I'm sorry 7650 so that's the driver that's that's my operating budget then as far as the other thing that I always kind of find if me reports is what are people doing through their homes when as soon as Co hit it was home offices basement rent Etc what is going on in terms ofal permit activity the at the moment the to there's a lot of there's a lot of activity we see a lot of additions we see a lot of decks being added we see a lot of um uh just like Co basements people in basements there is construction going on out there the biggest uh complaint or frustration is there's uh people ordering kitchen cabinets or whatever the supply chain is still lagging a little bit not as bad but sometimes it's taking four to six weeks just to get kitchen cabinets and that's frustrating a lot of the residents not on our end but on the Contracting end so but it's it's it's very robust we sometimes there's a little bit of a low in January December we didn't have that low as far as inspe and Broner Flats of course keeping us very busy with inspections to keep them going and soon to be one more over yes yes uh so what is the plan on digitization and is there ever a chance that we're going to be able to get that file management cost you know down to zero or yeah well yes I don't I don't know what the latest is I Mr Dio or ask my capital part of that file management digitization of any of this have we done any of that yet not yet no nothing we just purchased a new big computer table thing it's up at the yes there that should hopefully reduce some of the costs yes yes in theory it was uh it was mandated by the state in 21 that uh all the towns have to be able to accept digitized permits scheduling and inspections things like that so we had we bought the hardware last year we bought the 55 in table it's and we're using it now for big plans that call up however there's still a glitch with the state of course they issue a mandate but then there's some issues with the permits as far as electronic seals with the plumbing and electricians so they're still working that out so we can't totally Implement that but we're still using the table now for big to call up their plans on that so there's there's less paper with that already so we're slowly getting in gear but we still need titing from the state mayor if I may one of the items that has risen to the top of my desk is a council's request for the past couple of years about digitizing records that is on the radar for 202 and I'll be working with the staff to get that moving I know you keep putting funds in the budget and that that is on the top of the list with the absolute blizzard in over activity I think yeah I was just going to say that we have about Five O requests a week and sometimes it's voluminous with especially with vendors and want uh like a a window company and they want all the permits construction permits for that year and it's and and I know the state is trying to help regulate that and cut cut it down but it's it takes it takes time in our department to fill all these over with L I would say this is something that honestly we've been talking about getting Legacy paper records digitized for the better part of a decade yeah um want to at least because it's been two years another estimate but we did the building and I mean the building department yeah and just a minute book for the work that be the first thing I watch yeah it's 700,000 yeah I mean I would think going back and doing the prior historic ones obviously for op requests that would be helpful but I think some way we have to get on this as soon as possible and at least get something set up so that moving forward we don't have to digitize the records for the next six months Ching anything paper now at all or is it all I'm sorry are we taking anything that comes in now is it all coming in electronic and right now it's still all paper now it it's very strict as far as what what um records can be destroyed and sometimes after 10 years you can so we are going to start to develop okay after 10 years and start to date all the boxes now this could be you know destroyed the legal way to the state after they're digitized yes yeah thank you Mr Jacobs thank you fire prevention fire prevention uh salaries this is an easy one salaries remain flat at 990,000 and their operating remain flat at 8,000 but they do have some Capital requests if I can have him come up Mr evening everyone I do have three capital requests uh I'd like to uh present uh the first and largest one would be a new vehicle um the fire prevention Bureau currently has a fleet of three um recycled Township vehicles um the newest one being a 2012 and they all vary from miles from 60,000 up to 990,000 Miles um the town does a good job at maintaining them but it would be nice to get a a new one in the fleet um it' be a pickup truck um one that we could throw all our gear in um kind of keep everything in one spot um with a cap on the back um we can keep our um when we do fire investigations our dirty gear back there keep it out of the cabs um keep it out of the SUVs that we have now um the uh second item would be uh mobile radios the fire prevention Bureau um we have portable radios that we carry but I feel um it'd be a safe uh for safety if we could get mobile radios in in the vehicles that we have um we we do use our vehicles as mobile offices most of the time driving throughout town uh doing inspections we do come across accidents and things like that so to have a mobile radio in the car uh I feel would uh benefit us um and then lastly uh the uh my third request is uh personal protective equipment for my uh fire investigators um currently we have uh old turnout gear at the fire department was gracious enough to uh lent us um but to get our own um personal protective gear for the fire investigators while they're in there doing their investigations would be a uh a request for their you know safety and that's all I those are the three items that I have any questions Mr Gord just just one or two on my end um a couple of the big three of your fire prevention um investigators are also members of the fire department why can you wear your fire department gear uh we could the you typical fire investigator gear is lighter um it's it's not the full structural firefighter gear it's kind of just like the outer shell um and if we do uh a few times uh if we are operating as firefighters and then we have to switch Rolos to the investigator we're hot we're sweaty to be able to throw something lighter uh on would um and also differentiate us from the fire department I feel be important um that what would be your funding priority if you had to one the gear uh would be number one and then the vehicle would be the new vehicle would be number two thank you thank you good night sorry thank you um moving along in tab 17 we did not go over engineered um when Chuck was here last um last time it's the last page in there tab 17 uh it starts with Street and Highway uh we just happened to miss engineer that salaries um was last last year we budgeted 31,000 um for a part-timer this year we have removed that so salaries is down to zero the operating expense um was 29,200 and is now um projected at 27,000 any questions on that one no tab 18 uh we had shade tree um Chuck did the presentation for shet tree but I do have Carol Thomas here um to speak to you about uh Capital expenses what SI good evening um as you know that the Shay Tre budget is 125,000 that hasn't really changed over several years at this point that money is generally used up by uh residence requests stor emergencies DPW uses that up so there has been no chance for a regularly scheduled maintenance program that should be happening to maintain our Urban canopy um there's a uh you know Verona has a fiduciary responsibility to maintain those trees if something happens uh we don't want to be in the position that we find ourselves in sometimes so our a lot of the canopy is approaching over 100 years old some of the streets you live on the the pin oaks the Red Oaks the London plain trees um you know they give the character to the town but they're also aging their life can be extended if they're pruned on a regular basis so the shade tree is requesting um $775,000 a year for a five-year budget we're going to ask for that every for five years so we can catch up on some we had originally wrote that up as 100,000 and then in looking at what things are costing us now we're going to come back to the 75,000 and what we'll do is get as much pruning done as we can for that uh amount of money a year we'll also try to insert a a planting program in there probably the second or third year after we get some uh some of the emergency maintenance work done the community forestry management plan is up next year it's it expires this year but there's grants available to rewrite those this year we're also asking for 3,000 for a windshield survey which will identify the hazards in town and that will direct where we want our maintenance program we know it'll probably where probably be but just in case uh the Arbiter arboris um locates um other areas in town that we have happened to miss so this would be an addition to the you know would be a capital request on top of the the regular budget any so you have to be clear your request is 15K a year 75 75k per year for the next five years correct now that may be that may change once we get um what I've learned over the last couple years is you know government is interesting we can't go out or I haven't been a go out and get a bid for how much it would cost us to prune all of The Oaks on off lynon until we have it approved so hopefully it would be less but I'm basing that off of what the contracts are now we're thinking 75,000 but um Mr there are grants available from the New Jersey uh D the urban community Forest division so we may very well be able to get those um grants for that work but I can't guarantee that so that's why we're asking for it in the capital in terms of process for for getting grants is this something that we have to authorize the capital budget for the sharing portion of it first before we need to put in an application at all is it something we can you know what is the timeline because again this is something that is you know we've known we have this need and if there is some sort of grant program you know I'd rather got a ton of competing Capital priorities this year normally we prepare your entire capital budget I provide that to the grant firm U so that they literally keep an eye out for potential grants we can get for project and prioritizing um your your trees are aging it is serious in the short time I've been here we've had a number of trees come down and we've been very fortunate that there's not any injuries the property damage yes um the windshield surveys are going to be essential that will identify by Zone per se if that's and that's how it should be done so you're cycling through zones just like you do your stormm water catch bement cleanings um so I do recommend that you put a 75,000 a year in your capitals per year not sure what a bid would come out at this is a rough estimate but Jal survey we SCH you off to the right foot BR firm will have actually all of our projects all of our capital and anything that's out there we're applying for but um some areas you can't Delight some are really critical that could be costly to the community if you do Delight every time I hear a tree come down I lose sleep and I know I'm G to get a call grant opportunities that are normally think that are an operating expense so for example this is the first time we're really talking about giving shade tree a capital budget um I mean is there if there some other mechanism here because we've been always spending operating money on on shade tree how do we get things like that in front of the grant writing firm for opportunities that are you know not if if it happens to be on on the radar the state or or foundations uh great and then and then we can apply but you really can't put off certain projects hoping that a state Grant may come up or a Federal grant may come up you kind of hope that they are there and we have that firm on because every week we get the list of what's available and then we apply for those grants but you do have foundation in place now a 501c3 um friends of parks so trees are in the areas of our open space areas they they can apply to foundations that you normally don't get funding from so so my basically the gist of my request is can we this week just reach out to bleum and say hey we're spending $100,000 year in operating funds on shade tree is there anything that's out there and not interrupt but I've been in touch with Katie quter is it and and and we've already talked about that the the UCF grants come up in May what I had asked her to look into a couple months ago wasn't um we didn't qualify for urban stressed overburden communities so our doesn't come up um for another couple months but they're competitive bids so other competitive Grant application so we may may not get them regardless yeah I know I'm in favor of I know this is a need I'm trying to figure out if there's always ways to sort of jump jump the queue here on things before we even have a pass budget and try and find some resources so we know we can get to some of this sh little reorganized we're I'm pretty familiar with you know running these grants so we're hoping to be a little proactive in that right and but we still need to get some of this behind the scenes your staff are working with millennium a monthly basis on what comes up do we have a good shot at a grant but they do have the list of a needs that doesn't mean hit them all um thank you um I just want to add that the Community Management program that's due every five years that the state made big revisions and it's going to be very data Centric and I think last time Verona invested in this because again it is a requirement of the state um we didn't go the little extra mile to get a a digitized map and Survey of all of our trees it was just done on a spreadsheet we really need to move into this digital era and really be able to have a precise location of every single shade tree so that we can effectively manage the fleet um or the the selection of trees that we have um so that we can be very proactive so so I hope when we do apply for the grant it's for you know um the right data set this time so that we are fully equipped to move forward because it's really been required in the new yeah um management plan it's been a hindrance I think to really effectively the shade Tre being very strategic now to really manage our inventory without that GIS thing we start like four or five years ago when St was see I think we had the gis we have for for back we have an inventory 2019 we had an inventory yes they there are some uh GPS locations I've been in touch with Mr wtz and where are the other GPS locations there was a snafu at the time on the Machinery so they didn't put it I asked him to look back at his records he said you know to see if he had more data than what he has um he didn't so this next time that we have to for the inventory and we don't really need an inventory we're not required for that for another few years but for the um man have you check Public Works pardon have you checked with Public Works they think as they were planting I thought they were putting them into the system no looking trees they were not we we have to talk about the reporting from Public Works that I get that I can keep if I get reporting then I can update the inventory but we have to work on that um Mr dico is there a possibility of having interal P Friends of the Vera trees Foundation that we can do this you can literally put um you can put 51 c3s together for multiple categories it's an independent Community um resource it's not it's not the council just like we did Friends of on the parks I think would be worthwhile and opening up some funding as well I'm sure Mrs Thomas would like to be president of me yeah because I have all this I'm in my retirement just uh just so you know uh shade tree is going to have an ARB Day event this year that we haven't had in a couple years so I'll let you know what's what's going on with that any other than um mrar the resue spot president has his hand up before I think he has a tab he doesn't have a tab he's in um I can't remember if it's Tab four he's on Zoom is he current yeah okaying it I think it's Ricky's iPhone phone oh from I we'll pull him up it's okay I find it it's tab three uh number 24 in tab three so it's a couple of pages in good okay Mr temp you should have talking permission yeah sorry I was just finishing my my thought in my class uh tab three number 24 this part of the meeting I'll be turning the meeting over to the deputy mayor so in uh tab three um item number 24 is the rescue squad um currently the rescue squad is only being budgeted for their clothing allowance um so last year we budgeted 75 they spent 65 so I budgeted again 65 um for 2024 um I the president is on from the rescue squad and has some Capital ex um expenses that he wanted to go over with you if we have no questions about the operating no let okay speak you sure you want me to speak Deputy Mayor I know you're tired of hearing my voice after all these years of meetings anyway so the clothing allowance is just an incentive basically for the members and the volunteers it helps pay for uniforms that kind of get destroyed or closed if they happen to have their uniform on from blood vomit and extreme other bodily fluids that don't come out of cloth all that easily and generally speaking you know it's based on volume standbys education drills and training ironically enough part of the cool L is the class I'm teaching tonight which is continue education credits for the squad that I teach at no cost to the agency or the town um as far as capital goes it's kind of a weird situation because we asked for an ambulance last year that's probably not going to get delivered till next year because the lead time on ambulances in the state of New Jersey is about I'm sure it's across the the country is like two to three years it used to be about a year but it's just gotten way longer we submitted the plans and got the bond approval last year and at the earliest we're looking first quarter 2025 but I'm more of a pessimist I'm going to guess probably third quarter 2025 and it just has to do with Ford only making x amount of chassis and just the availability of the builds um it's going to be a slightly smaller ambulance than our previous one because of our current building size we really have one pickup truck front ambulance currently cuz as I brought up the last meeting with the new building we just can't fit you know certain size ambulances in certain Bays because our garage is over 40 years old at this point and it was designed for a much smaller sized ambulance and the ambulances now are running the size just like the fire engines have just gotten bigger over the years because of more safety compliance etc etc etc the other Capital expense I was remiss in sending to Jen because I thought it was already approved was our special oper a vehicle that's sitting at the Town garage um I brought it up a couple years ago it was first on cavalo and we thought we was going to get done then and then it moved to Steve Neil and Mr dearco and now it's Mr Mr Deco um basically the sov is important because it comes with over $100,000 in equipment that we use regularly and it's kind of something we didn't emphasize I guess enough in the past which is why it's kind of got the can been kicked down the road by you know a couple Town managers at this point but the truck is very important because it's a command center it's HVAC capable so considering I almost you know passed out from heat stroke at the CL house fire having somewhere that's air conditioned and heat controlled is beneficial to the Command Staff they're trying to make you know life or death decisions for 12 hours straight but also and what I want to really highlight is the $100,000 in equipment that was given to us for free that we use at standbys fires Mass casualties that will be on our owners to buy ourselves or be future Capital requests of the township that was provided to us at no cost by the state of New Jersey EMS task force and it's stuff we just use regularly tents misting fans for the firefighter rehab tarps triage equipment extra chairs bench seats um a lot of MCI tabletop things that we actually used at the technical rescue at fair viiew and Bloomfield is it last year now so I I just am advocating for probably the fourth or fifth time behold the council app please it's only 45 or $50,000 pair it's probably less now because we've obtained some of the equipment for it just so it can be repaired because if we don't start using the vehicle the task force is going to reassign it to someone else and we're going to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment that benefits the community so I understand it's a big ass but it's a much less of an ass than asking the council for $100,000 in equipment we currently have that we have to give to somebody else sorry that was a bit long-winded but I just wanted to really kind of lay it out Mr Testa you uh laid it out very clearly appreciate your time yeah and I appreciate the council bonding the ambulance but kind of like I said last year was you know it'll come eventually we just need it to get built and that's a Ford's problem not ours thank you sir yeah and also just a quick side note for uh the two people up there on the podium that have their Ford F-150 lightnings they don't come in Ambiance style yet but I'll let you know when that happens thank you sir all right do you mind if we switch to tab 26 we'll skip the middle because I'm just going to keep on talking um otherwise and we'll do the library because I'd like to yes move them along if that's okay um you mayor has given me the chair back he was holding on to it for a couple minutes but thank you for being there Library folks okay Library um I I'll speak and then I'll call Claudine up if if you have questions I guess um last year salaries was 527 this year were proposed at 549 um she did discuss with me that she has a part-timer um that will be going full-time this year so that's a little bit of the difference there other expenses last year was 471 uh 504 this year is $499 530 um as you can see at the bottom the mandated minimum that were required to give the um to not give the library but to appropriate towards the library is five uh is 1 mil 48530 which is what the library is currently asking for um so that is what we're required to give them as a minimum any questions for our liary um just for the public awareness the library budget is established by law um by the state and this is the exact amount of that yes any questions for Library staff okay thank you it's good to see you you come to meeting for a couple hours come on up come on up on up so um I hope you have I saw Christine you held up the annual report I hope that you've all received that you should have received a PDF copy of that um 2023 was just a very busy year and so that was one of the reasons why um I really wanted to with this increase um one of our part-timers is leaving us and so I'm going to be promoting somebody who's currently part-time to a full-time position and they're going to be the point person at the circulation desk and right now we don't have that it's just um kind of like puzzle pieces getting the scheduled together at the circulation desk um with part- timer so this is going to I think really help streamline a lot of um what happens at the circulation desk so you know I think it's going to be great for the for the public um and again this is you know the what the one3 mill it is the minimum that is required so we're not asking for anything additional this year um we're not asking for any Capital as well um so um you know it was a busy year circulation is up by over 4,000 digital borrowing is up by over 26% we um added 170 additional programs with 4,500 people more in attendance so you know we're really thriving we're doing well and um I was glad to see this bump in our minimum but we're going to make good use of it questions minor questions it's been a couple of years since we did the building is it everything holding up okay is there you know that's the only thing I was kind of look at look at these things five years or so so um yeah there are only two line items in our budget um in the operating other than um salaries and wages where you'll see a significant increase and one of those line items is actually Building Maintenance and Equipment the air conditioner in the Jack Foley meeting room needs to be replaced and so that is the reason for that bump there um but otherwise the building itself is good shape um we have you know regular maintenance staff anything that needs to get done we've been able to do that with the boiler the generator within our budget just some minor repairs at this point um and then the other big bump you'll see in one of the line items is for pal plus and that is because the Library Consortium that we belong to redid their funding formula which um you know ended up with about a $5,000 increase for us for the year but otherwise yeah the bill building is right all have thank okay thank you thank you okay so we did want to recognize the members of the library board and the audience as well okay we previously did tab 19 vehicle maintenance oh tab 20 interal uh we spoke about this earlier um with Tommy Jake when he was here uh the contract for the interlocal increase at the bottom from 143 through1 in 2023 to 147 um so our other inter locals like I believe we have a street speeding inter local other things like that where where do those end up showing up they don't reflect here um because they're smaller um I believe one of them is 3500 per time uh the other one is 4500 per time it's a calculation based on Square how many streets and and the square miles of of the streets um because they're much smaller they come in as miscellaneous Revenue yeah they're not budgeted for because is are very expensive based on request yes exactly this has more of your um your salaries right for those health health um last year we budgeted 27,000 and this year I'm proposing 28,000 on the bottom uh the operating was $1 139 950 and this year is 14600 public we contract with Monclair for most of our health services we also contract we for animal control use of share service agreements tab 22 for recreation last year we budgeted 651 65100 000 this year we're projecting 720,000 on the bottom uh the operating expense was 17500 and we've dropped that down to 173 even is that bump in salaries mainly like minimum wage going up partly minimum wage um but you have um the whole um Department has kind of changed around um you have another kind of split do you want to discuss how that's the restructuring the restructuring and hiring a new employee and you had retirement so um just the restructuring of that plus minimum wage I think R had a question I just wanted just you know we should flag as long as we're talking Rec expense what Rec Revenue is because you know some of the increase in you know in R expense should hopefully be offset by Rec revenue and I'm just kind of curious with basically what's our NB sure our Recreation Revenue last year was 354,000 you have the 2022 actual I know it's not in our um I don't but I can get it for you it probably wasn't too much more than 280 if I had to guess okay so so potentially we might have had you know 50 to 70k increase in in fees R numbers Recreation has been one of the um ones that since covid has been working its way back up um in in Revenue uh there's been years that I've done that they did like they fell short from where the um budgeted Revenue was I can give you a number though I me by your estim looks like there's you know roughly 50 to 70k increase in revenue and there's roughly a 50 you know $50,000 increase in expense so probably doing okay here let me see if I can get it quickly though 2022 16 497 316 and then 354 for little less on the bottom you'll see by itself Town fields uh last year was budgeted 45,000 um this budget Town Fields is mainly um run by Chuck um since he's the one preparing the fields and ordering the supplies for the fields so he asked for an increase uh for $50,000 from 45 to 50 uh part of that is that just the same supplies are costing so much more for paint and line and everything else so um that's the increase at the bottom there um so I know that we don't price our our fees for our Recreation programs are not necessarily you know programmed to program some of them kind of net out positive some are loss and that's okay that's are you do you have a line a site in particular I'm a little curious about the summer camp programs so summer camp uh we budgeted 140 last year I believe we budgeted yes so we had some transfers which is why it's a little um off but summer programs was budgeted at 140 and we brought in with some expenses about 110 and we spent 110 so we we came out about even on that about even okay I am working with the recreation um Department in providing reports uh because it wasn't done previously every quarter every single program what you brought in for that program the problem is the expenses because it's so big picture for them um to it's not only the art supplies for the art teacher it's having the site supervisor there and then splitting out the site supervisor there for however many programs are going on and then you can you know even further detail that to the pg bills and like having the um Building open and lights running and so we're working on that not just on the supplies as the expenses but going further with that and trying to work in the additional expenses of keeping the building open for those programs okay in particular with the summer camp I think it would be a good exercise to understand specifically that program using a lot of we're using some facilities with the school and but also that's an example where minimum wage has gone up a lot and I don't know if we've kept pace with the fee for that program and it's great that it's affordable it's meant to be affordable but at the same time did we go too long without making an adjustment there whereas private camps obviously been increasing their fees like astronomics the last four years so that's just um I think it may be late to adjust for summer of 2024 but we don't want to lose sight of that program yes and how it's running financially that's just such a big program like a soccer camp which maybe has 12 kids in it agreed yes so continually working on um the revenues and the expenditures associated with each program now I know Mr roboam couldn't be here tonight I am curious at a high level some cost efficiencies that he may be considering like it looked as a parent that he did reusable jerseys for the basketball program which is great and it reduces an environmental waste um but I was wondering like is he rolling out other cost efficiencies so not that aware okay right okay this is a point of reference our s camps are in incredible steel uh res I ran the Recreations program in watching Township when I was in my 20s and that was a half day program and cost like three times as much as what we uh are charging residents yes I it's great that it's affordable I don't know if we as the governing body wanted to be like what level of an incredible steal so I think that's where I'm a little concerned no I'm agreeing with you is a very good value and a reasonable adjustment would be appropriate yes um because you know back in what I ran those programs and we we turn to profit that's what we return yes I think we just need more information about what is coming in for each program and the expenses to then give you a detailed summary of what we would anticipate possibly charging okay that would be great you get to that yes civic affairs civic affairs so this budget uh last year was 833 this year we're looking at 100,000 um we've split out some of the lines which is why you see uh fair and the square specifically is split out um Hanukkah specifically spit split out from special events so special events and holidays kind of just everything got every holiday got dumped there besides Memorial Day Fourth of July um so we decided to try to split it out because what happens is um the holidays that are at the beginning of the year um tend to get notice and then we're struggling in September saying hey we know fair in the square is coming and we need to appropriate money now for fair in the square and that is a large appropriation because it is a large event so trying to repurpose that with the public information officer um and trying to make it a better process so that at the end of the year we're not struggling on funding for um each should be pointed out that this do not include the overtime cost for ground Works B on these all right I'm just looking at like fair in the Square I always was under the impression uh uh so much under the impression but I always thought that was making money because we charged for tables and what I believe we charge $35 per table so in comparison uh I don't know how many tables we have generally but not enough to cover and how the nonprofits free I would have to ask our public information officer that I'm not sure $35 F was fairly interesting because sometimes you see true like commercial vendors that are just there Selling Stuff uh I don't know what each one is charged but typically it's $35 per table I can get additional clarification unless somebody else knows but um look at that yeah you like the replacement window sellers yeah exactly we did have a packed house okay I think this is one of the things that's be considered what events we hold in town that yes we need to consider the cost associated with it especially the overtime piece of it um and really establish that we have to be careful about adding anything because there is an expense to that andless we consider what budget so we do a lot which is fantastic but at the same time we do seem to be adding things relatively regularly um so would be helpful Administration to set a Target as far as where these are the the events that we're doing after this it's got to wait till the next budget cycle I would rather see a proposal to hold an event that has an expense has overtime rather than at the event and then pay bills later and then rebgetz doeses increase it it's important for the community to do these things but at the same point we budget everything else so we need to think maybe a year year and a half in advance for any additional events or things planning so they can be budgeted um and I would like to potentially in the future have I think we had it from B&G but have a breakout of how much of the civic affairs is the overtime for buildings and grounds the DPW and the police as well because this number has steadily gone up um so just as a just as thought on that sure um just one comment um internal conversations the the list that the public information officer had were the ones that were approved previously the events that were approved previously um so we can definitely get you that list I know Alisa has it um but that this budget is based on those on that list that was approved may I me any new events that being proposed to the council that come from the community they do have to submit a full budget request for you to consider before it goes forward I'll have the Staffing yes we need to know exactly um yeah so related to this so the did we ever get a resolution on rental costs for the Civic Center and because there are some outside groups that use our Civic Center and then we have some as the mayor has pointed out some costs associated with that did we ever get to a resolution on how that is going to move going forward the next the ordinance recommendation for the center community events uh the items for the pool that we didn't address yet that's coming up at your next next month I think okay's done like that okay thank you Senior Citizens senior citizens uh salaries remain flat at 20 75 um this year we increased seniors so and we decreased Recreation um operating because seniors has been such a a small budget um historically the senior pull party alone is over $3,000 between the band and the food and everything else um they also go on um Casino trips they do other things and a lot of that was being funded by Recreation um because the senior budget was just not large enough to cover all of the expenses for the seniors so we moved a little bit out of recreation to make the senior budget a little bit healthier so that they can we can really see what we're spending on the seniors basically um we've already done tab 25 26 through the end um there are going back to tab three there are some additional ones that are not a page like resue Squad um that if you would like we can just go over quickly um number 23 parking meters um this is for like the tags um this is the stickers that they put on on the cars and stuff like that um that has been budgeted at 3,000 again same as last year Emergency Management um you have a salary ordinance um that tells me that the sipen for that uh salary is $10,000 they have an operating budget of $5,000 which comes to the total of the 15,000 on that on creation cair seniors I believe we went over everything under 34 which was um your PSG bills your telephone uh contingency again is something you're not supposed to spend but it's in case of emergencies and gasoline I think we went over that last time uh your statutory expenses your uh Public Employee Retirement fund is your um it's split between current uh library and water sewer um so that's for all of your people in pension uh your police fire and rescue or obviously police last year the state allowed us to move some of the health insurance outside of the cap that's why it's kind of split there funky um on the next page Social Security uh is budgeted the same at 425 in the prior years we were using uh a trust for the lowp payment that were required to give to the fire department um for all of um the fire department members that there's a ranking system um they have to go on so many drills um and they Supply to me how much um each member is um going to get a contribution for um so we're now currently we haven't had to budget for that in the most recent years so now we will be budgeting for that um since prior we were using the trust if just so you know if we don't spend all of that money I'll move it back to the trust so we can keep fluid there uh dcrp is all of our um employees that make over $55,000 but are not um not in full-time and not in regular pensions salary and wage adjustment last year we budgeted 20 uh we have been historically budgeting 20 um and I budgeted 20 again comp absence liability are your retirements uh we budgeted last year 75,000 and I budgeted again 75,000 your reserve for tax appeals budgeted was 75,000 and again budgeted 75,000 we see liability field so what happens is it is um put into the budget I then uh do a check from current fund into our trust accounts to build those funds so that when retirements happen um I don't know of any this year but when retirements happen I have the funds there and then can pay out on them there um same with tax appeals um sometimes exact yeah sometimes it's um you know multiple tax Appeals that could happen you know um at the same time for multiple years so it could be $40,000 as a refund at one point for one property um on the bottom recycling garbage um the $3 tax last year it was 12764 this year I budgeted the same commercial revitalization has been 10,000 uh we discussed inm and bumped it down to 5,000 instead Capital Improvement fund uh last year was 20 200,000 and I bumped that up to 250,000 um as you know you have some pending um Capital requests from numerous departments so that will just help fund down payments on the next page you have your debt service um those are required ired um at the top your your bond principle or anything that's permanently financed um our Green Acres loan uh goes through 2027 as the same amount so that will continue our legal installments is there which is our down payments on our um notes our interest on bonds our interest on notes our covid emergency um that goes through 2026 and at the bottom you have the grants thank thank you so why is our bond principal going down I just so one of our one of our um in our debt schedule one of our bonds has been paid off I think it was the two either 2008 or 2010 schedule has been paid off so it's just reduced that is being replaced with our B payments on our notes yes exactly yes yeah and that concludes tab three and I believe everything in this binder well that was a bing budget appreciate your providing the detail aou more specific comments next meeting but things the public brought up that I just wanted um first is can we get the your PowerPoint up on the website and else during the meeting um and the second piece is one really important thing to note is that for the past several years as inflation has gone up 7% we're we're down into more manageable 4% but our Levy is increasing nowhere near that um so I think one very important thing to point out is that because of our caps and we have certain things outside the caps with um uh various health things with capital and stuff like that we're still well uh under the level of inflation which means that the township and staff making very serious decisions about where money is going in our resource allocation and uh I just wanted to thank all of the department heads for doing that pretty consistently and really at the end of the year maybe not getting everything they want um because the cost everything has gone up and it's one of those things as we wait to on some of the capital items and we look at what inflation's going it be it may be cheaper to do things now later and something that we need to consider as well is what the actual cost of um but leading is cost everybody is now uh that is one item that I think it's important to that we are well under spending um in comparison on toest mayor keep it short uh you already mentioned restaurant weekness is going on this week so thank everybody for uh participating may get out there and get some fine cuisine from restaurants uh I have to stop and thank Congressman Payne for his visit last week to Verona to talk about and discuss public safety building and looking forward to the help we will give the township OFA moving forward uh and I have to acknowledge uh sustainable Verona they uh as I said in the past they're going for silver status from Sustainable New Jersey they put their first application in and got word back there's three stages to it uh they didn't hit the number for their silver status but they have two more chances at it May 10th and July 31st to reapply and I'm pretty confident they will reach that goal uh I have to not like the representatives from sustainable have just put in a a lot of time on this and I'm looking forward to them achieving the status thank you coun in the interest of moving our meeting along ex me we should just know what the planning board did meet um and had a couple little items on the ordinances we said consisten and we'll get those back that is true I do have some brief notes on that ordinance I'll pass along away thank you very much Council M uh thank you I really enjoyed participating in the meeting with Congressman Payne uh with the deputy mayor um I thought it was a really productive conversation um and I really appreciate uh his time here in Verona and the help I was able to ride to help set up that meeting um I want to congratulate and thank uh the Multicultural inclusion accessibility advisory committee for their first Black History Month event uh where we um honored Mr William Brown the thir it was also attended by the deputy mayor in councilwoman Holland uh William Brown um is a longtime grownup resident uh 15year member of the planning board including um the head of the planning board for several years he spent his life focused mentoring youth in the field of architecture it was a fascinating presentation and to follow up on that today I attended Congressman pay's um annual Black History Month event where Mr Brown was recognized uh it was really a wonderful event I was able to sit with his family while he was recognized by Congressman Payne along with five under other individuals so um this was a really successful uh Black History Month um uh for Verona and I look forward to next Year's celebrations and that's my report thank you thank you councilman thank you um I'll just note that prior to our next meeting or approximately in line with our next meeting um the winter termination program will be coming to an end so it's important for any residents that are having difficulties paying for their utility bills rather than facing disconnection notices or shut offs to get the assistance they need dur dur this time I know that the weather's mild at the moment but it is still the winter termination period so if you are having trouble meeting um making ends meet and paying your utility bills I think it's really important to go and get that assistance now before um the winter termination program ends so please Avail yourself with that resource thank you thank you Council uh at this time I'm going to call for public comments on any item M cler which includ use read the public participation anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter please raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor if you're dialing in by phone please star n you're attending in person pleas approach the elector and once you recognized clearly you state only your name Township of residents for the record you're not required to provide your street address however if you do please not that these meetings will be posted on the YouTube channel and addresses will not be rejected for any purpose you'll have four minutes to address the council across dialogue and everyone after everyone wishing to speak has been heard Council May address your comments and or questions it's open thank you you like to participate yeah Mr Ryan from home good evening uh I I know you have a a very long lengthy agenda so I'll keep my comment brief I just wanted to say that I did participate in the program last Saturday with the mobile uh uh Department of Motor Vehicles uh uh group and uh just from my personal experience I found it very rewarding uh I was looking to get the uh uh the upgrade to the driver's license uh and uh had a 12:00 appointment and I was out by 12:30 the people were very courteous uh uh very efficient and uh like to thank anybody uh in the room here who was instrumental in coordinating that and putting it together and hopefully uh I think you could maybe schedule more of these things I found out in addition to getting your verification for your uh identity that uh as a veteran my current driver's license didn't have an annotation on it regarding that I did submit my discharge papers as a point of reference to uh to prove my identity and they told me that you can also get your veteran status noted on the uh on the driver's license so that might be something that would interest uh vets uh I know sometimes many places say we offer veterans discounts but when you go and ask them about it they say well you have to prove you're a veteran so rather than carrying a uh a large a sheet of discharge papers with you having The annotation on the driver's license uh might be might be very helpful and uh that concludes my comments thank you very much anybody right your name and your um your account of res address uh Corey Shore um Rona New Jersey um chairman of the uh Rec committee new um nice to meet everybody some of you know and um just a couple comments on the uh recreational uh budget um I hope next year um the rec committee will be able to study it a little bit more and give comment we haven't had a meeting in the last we haven't had comment this year we haven't had a meeting this year because of snow the last two have been delayed so we are still we are waiting for and I will push for and I think the committee will push for is a Fe study as I heard some of the council councilwoman grth and councilwoman councilman Roman comment on a a fee study or kind of a a study on the revenue versus expenses and how the fees are so that's something that we are going to get into over the next year so that we're able to provide a comprehensive look at it just like we did with the pool study and then all the other studies that we are currently doing so um hopefully over uh the next hopefully over the next couple months we're able to provide that type of analysis provide recommendations for the council and um do the best job that we can so I thank you very much and um have a good night thank you uh Chris Riley I live in Verona um two questions or one comment one question um a couple of months ago I asked about the status of the development agreement for its Spectrum um property and there wasn't any information available at the time and I'm wondering if there was any update in terms of when that agreement is going to be exposed to the public and um when we'll have a chance to comment um my comment is I I thought the um CFO did a great job in presenting all that information she certainly has a you know good handle on everything going on in the town and um like a lot of budgets you know you compare yourself year after year and you know how you're doing this year versus last year but one of the things I'm curious about is how do we compare to other towns um I know for example um you know there's a lot of towns around here that we're not you know Apples to Apples comparison like Montclair West Orange Maplewood South Orange but in terms of like the Cal Wells that also have a lot of volunteer service as well and seem like they have a lot of similarities to Verona um you know how do we Stack Up do do we pay our our employees more I mean I don't know if that information is even available but um you know our our costs and you know fixed cost labor cost variable cost similar to those towns as well so any insight you can provide on that would be appreciated thank you I Pat Le Verona uh basically the last meeting uh we talked about the pool and how the taxpayers are now footing the bill for the water and uh Mr diarco we' talked at the wck meetings and things I've heard him mentioned that the pool is a utility so how can a taxpayer it can't be funded by the taxpayer so I don't belong to the pool I have no affiliation with pool I've never gone um I have a pool I have a beach home why am I paying taxes on the pool and what benefit do I get from that because I can't use the pool because I'm not a member so now I'm paying for the water there and let's be honest uh the budget started with $700,000 payment basically going to our debt the pool is no joke worth $300,000 probably in debt on it you're using 200,000 in art funds to pay and best case scenario is you might break even this year with that extra 100,000 what's going to happen next year is the town going to have to put more money because we're paying for the utility we're paying for the water we're paying for the DPW we're paying for so much at this pool but yet I can't use it as a taxpayer but I'm paying for it so uh I think we need to get that handled um next year 2025 what we just heard was basically 500,000 for the reval probably is going to come 2025 2026 uh new fire truck um there's no money we need to digitize all the records uh you guys got to get this spending under control basically like we got to figure out what is priority here like I was up here battling for Everett but I don't want to put a field in just to show hey I'm driving a Cadillac but I got no money when I go home like you got to get your priority straight I don't know if it was the splash pad that did the pool in or whatever but we're spending a lot lot of money we got four new road projects coming in where probably a sanitary sewer is going to fail just like Derwent or something like that and Capital Improvements was just asked for over the 250,000 so I didn't even see in the budget a field um you guys got your hands full but trust you and I just want to make sure we can figure this out because next year I don't want to pay for the pool I don't go there I I don't want to be a taxpayer not benefiting from something my kids can't benefit from it because I don't pay for them to go so what are my taxes paying for something I can't use and it's utility not supposed to so kind of upset about that so otherwise great job and yeah thank you thanks for your time thank you public comments on I'm going close public comment at this time um Mr sh I appreciate your comments on that as far as the fee study I know we've been spending a lot of money on Consultants but the fee study in the recreation side is something that we can use our in-house talent for certainly volunteering mran but his report writing is excellent um and he's done some great work for us already I think that's something that uh certainly do inh house rather than hiring consultants for and also the r Falls kind of in Mr 's chain of command think by the the way the organizational chart works or at least historically did um on the uh for Mr Riley Mr diarco Mr aloya do you have any updates on the Spectrum development gr I don't have any updates but I can certainly reach out we gather up all the documents that have been assigned because they're all public record um I I don't believe there's any new document or any document we're looking to sign in the near future actually if you uh M riy if you wanted to file open public records act request and no I have all the records I was at the planning board you kept talking about this development agreement where is it I'll send I'll email it to you the developers agreement is on development agreement no the developer agreement I think the two members up here know exactly what I'm we uh we'll ask Mr Loya to reach out to you offline because we can't have a back and forth in the meeting but get you all the public documents I have them I don't need them all right well there are no new ones in the in the recent past like so the last month there's no new ones so there's nothing more we can provide than the documents you have I think when a developers agreement is they're referring to the Redevelopment agreement they're just saying it's developers when we more likely not it's herbage if you could all if you could reach out Mr meeting and make sure that he has everything needs um as far as how we compare to other towns and stack up I think this is something that we as a council do on a reg relatively regular basis we ask for comparisons we just did this with our parking uh ordinance and we have done with our salary ordinances as well it's something that we do consider and continue to look at data for as far as an entire budget look at that I think that's hard to do apples to apples and um but for the most part don't see a huge amount of shift in our budget lines I think if we when it's really important to do that is when we have a major shift and need to really look at how are we organizing and and what are we doing that for uh but it is something that we do consider um and you know it's something I think especially with the the capital projects looking at what's being spent um on on that side um just Ryan's Point thank you for bringing up especially veterans components I talked to Mr lion I follow her about that uh he was certainly happy um for Mr petrang um I uh I agree with you on the pool piece um I am also not a full member I even get free membership that I don't apply for and use but um I agree with you about that and this is the conversation that we had during the pool part of the presentation is making sure that we appropriate the account for that water um as far as we go uh when we do our Capital budgeting so in the the budget book itself the capital is in contained that's our operating budget so as we have the capital conversations uh we do prioritize we do ask department heads in the last couple meetings I'm sure you heard by asking just now the the Fire official the fire chief you know what do you need now what do you need later I think this is one of those uh you front of Works director um what what do we need now obviously we have unlimited wants and to an extent municipal government unlimited needs as well uh and it's always the economic question of how we allocate our scarce resources so I agree on the tool for next year there was a conversation as we discuss the whole fee ordinance um a further increase in fees in future years in order to account for the end of the co emergency um and uh and the Deb Service uh and still uh we would be well under our comparibles as far as neighboring TS I think I I hit on everything I'll just comment On's comments regarding CeX I kind of said this a couple of times to Township staff that um capital is starting to concern me um we are very amendable to capital projects up here and we say yes to a lot of them and what I always say is that our Capital project each one of them individually when you look at them they all have a lot of value and are usually something that are a benefit to the town um what my concern is is the number of them that we are doing and the uh gross total in capital that we're spending um especially in a you know not as friendly interest rate environment that we that we used to be in uh this is one of those things where it can very easily get out of control and just because you don't hit your debt limit doesn't mean that you don't have too much debt um you know so it's just it's one of those things where we may have to get used to here being as the talentful sometimes being the bad guy and having to spread things out a little bit more um you know and again needs versus wants I love Recreation facilities but we have a lot you know when you spend a million dollars to put in a playground in a restroom that's you know a fire truck that's you know things like that we have to start making some value judgments here and we have to be you know sort of UNF afraid sometimes say you know we can't do that right now and it's just sort of in in my in my general look at the budget that's really what's concerning me is just the amount of capital that's been requested there is just not any way that we're going to be able to say yes to all of that uh without you know putting ourselves in a bad place so we may have to we may have to take some of it out I thank you um first of all I want to say thank you to Mr Shore for coming to the meeeting and I appreciate your service on the rec committee um I know that a lot of effort was put into the py recommendations as well as the ever field recommendations so just really want to thank you for your leadership and involvement there to Mr petrel's points regarding the pool um I I do agree with you and I think a fundamental issue that we have with the pool utility is that it hasn't been run like a utility so not withstanding the fact that the initial purpose of it was for it to be a utility that's just not how it's been run by the township it has been run as an extension of the W department so it is actually a paradig shift to now create it as self-liquidating even though it was created to be self-liquidating um so I mean this is a painful process and what's really come and I said this at the prior meetings it's it's really come to my attention that that our entire approach to the pool is just like our approach to many of our other Utilities in the town um and and it hasn't been strategic so we don't have a strategic plan for the pool it lays phow like 10 months out of the year so we're trying to get revenue for the structure in two months whereas it does have facilities that could potentially be used all year round and that would help to actually fill some of those budget gaps the rec committee um under Mr Shores leadership had a number of recommendations for Revenue generation that aren't being addressed right now by the council so I think you'll see my concerns um expressed in my votes regarding the pool fee structure and I think that what we really do need is a comprehensive strategic plan and and you know that can incorporate a rate study and if we have the in-house expertise that's great we certainly haven't utilized it if we have it so if we can save ourselves the cost of a consultant that's wonderful but in the end it should be a quality work product I can actually advise this Council and give us something comparable to the rate study and the asset management plan that we got or our utilities and I'm still waiting to see you know the engineering study for the wastewater treatment plant but that kind of analysis for the pool and a strategic Vision going five to 10 years out would be incredibly useful for this facility and it is another one of these crown jewels for Verona so we talk about wants and needs again some of the reasons why people live in Verona and I appreciate that not all residents do use the the pool but some people across the state know who Verona is because of this pool facility and people drive through town and they see Everett field so as much as I am a huge proponent of investing in things that nobody ever sees which are the pipes in the ground um and I have spent a lot of my time on this Council advocating for this I do also think that wants and needs need to be balanced because it would be unfair to all the families and residents in this community to typically characterize recreational needs as wants because they aren't the same as fire trucks or Emergency Services complexes or other expensive cost expenditures so I just think it's important for us to be weighing these things and didn't be taking a strategic approach to it which you know is something that this Council has been working on and I do appreciate the administration's leadership with regard to the water and sewer utility um and I just think that we need to take a similar approach roach to PO utility um and it really is a fundamental Paradigm Shift thank you okay um moving on to the post ordinances we have several post ordinances tonight uh Madam Clark the next item on the agenda is our's 8th one on first reading the title then chapter 140 vehicles and traffic Park zated in chapter a 5651 feed meter working rate 25 cent Saturday parking meter payment thank you councilwoman Council MRA second second second is by the councilman Roman um is there any discussion a couple question uh I'm just I was looking at this and wondering did we did we just copy this from the last one looking at like distances off of the streets because like it's just like like listing of of the streets that are here are these places where we're supposed to have meters or we had them in the past and we don't have them anymore and my first one is like on goul Street uh we have no meters on goul street with the West Side starting at a point 254 feet from Bluefield Avenue North 294 292 feet I don't think there's any meters on ghoul uh and that's that's the drop off zone for HB so I'm wondering should we go through this and delete some of these areas because they're somewhat outdated uh the one on montros also one on uh and both on Prospect I mean as far as like montros goes starting at a0 50 fet from Bluefield Avenue is we actually have three spots in there the beginning of mos we actually have three spots in that first 50 ft and then after that I I don't think there's any any meters going up on montros there's definitely not and I actually think like those are areas I think we should maybe look at in the next you the next meeting May revise this and say those the first block of the streets outside and that's actually considered that's actually Town Center also so those areas where if we had meters we have people that park there all day long they have permits in that area we can push them up the street a little bit and those are ideal spots to add barking for people that want to go down the corner and grab some lunch put some quarters in the meter and then move up from there uh I think it's a good turnover spot and it would it would it would add add extra spots to the downtown which we desperately need uh and then I know even on South Prospect we these numbers don't really yeah they definitely aren't right I mean so s Prospect East Side uh starting at a 64 feet from B Avenue I think I think that's yeah these are uh on some of these like on South Prospect the spaces are marked yeah but there's not either so um I I think it would make sense to leave this in here in its current thing so that we could meter them in the future um and then potentially look at if we wanted to meet her more up the street to add just Revis it later I believe that are not change that wow the discussion was because we had so many met we had what half our meter heads out of service so I think the plan was to buy some of the cluster meters for the municipal lot those in the municipal Lots take all those meters out of the municipal lot and put them back out on the street that is correct yeah so that is correct so I think moving forward we should we do like we we have store owners building owners near the Verona Park area that today they came forward and they said it they would welcome meters say up Claremont Avenue on the left side of Claremont Avenue maybe it's a good spot for there will be a period of time when from when other comments on P one started noticing Poes without meters on them as I drive around out um okay yes we have a lot of decapitated PA long all right Madam clerk would you call the rooll please councilwoman Holland yes councilwoman M yesy mayor maoy yes mayor T yes may sorry H one will be number 20247 it will be Law Public hearing will be on March 11 thank you madam clerk the next item on the agenda is ordinance H2 on first reading which please read the title of this ordinance an ordinance to amend chapter a 5651 scheduled pH of the code of the township to amend water and siles motion by the deputy mayor are seconds second and by councilwoman Holland uh any discussion on this I just have one point um I know the New Gen study included in the rate recommendation uh Provisions to pay the Deb service on the uh the well replacement project and the recent email that we got from Mr solivan we actually had some good news on the cost of that and on the principal forgiveness Lo was wondering if that email had changed the um what the r needed to be being that it would be potentially less than what we were expecting um answer will lower those number search I second comment um on this item just in general is I think the having a significant increase the first year while I understand why it was reced um is is difficult I think it will be difficult for a lot of our rate payers um and obviously if we don't increase it now there's going to be a cause to it we're potentially going to be in more of a difficult situation um but I think at this point the that large increase is something the council needs to take into consideration be and be cognizant of as far as being back and there should be no appearance that we are not understanding of that almost 30% increase in those rates so it's unfortunate that it had to to kind of come at one time and I you know did comment in the uh last meeting about stting it out but of course an option to the contractor or conducted this study um but I think it's something my my comment moving forward is that if we come to a position where as a result of various things the utility starts to see a um a surplus then we need to reassess all of these rates um to make sure that they're actually in line with what we need because the study of course is anticipation it's is not actually we need to test it and see where it's going to go and potentially make adjustments um which could hopefully in the future if we if the first initial increase um gets the story need to be we could potentially hopefully reduce rates in the future um if we have some of that that we can use as fund balance to offset the cost of um but I am hearing residents who are very concerned on this item uh and that is my hope that we continue to analyze this that this is not a one-time package that s you have comments on on this may anytime that we have a large jump in a fee you we know that there are some people who it's just going to cost a hardship for so you know our job trying to put these services at the lowest cost we reason we can and appreciative of the fact that we have backup you know in detailed you know studies as as to this but you know I take no joy and um you know increasing rates than anything ever uh and I would agree that it's something that we need to reassess as we move along here and make sure that we are being as cost efficient as possible and we don't just simply increase rates to increase rates if you know we have more favorable operations than what we predicted at this we have an obligation to run utilities financially stably but we also have an obligation to Res public utility revenue foret utility is to ensure that we are you know we're doing this at the lowest cost we can anybody else cler councilwoman Holland yes councilwoman MCG yes councilman Roman yes mayor maoy yes mayor Tor yes may ordinance H2 will be number 202 4-08 with publish 4 law and a publish will be held on March 11 thank you m clerk the next item on the agenda is each three first Reading Please read the title of this in ordinance to Abend chapter a 5657 of the code of the township um Verona Wolfies but I would like if I could just I'm going change title it simple and have it a 5657 parentheses B goofy please so motion the motion is made by Council gr the second is made by councilman Roman any discussion on this it um yes thank you so um on section two I think the uh on the caregiver definition I think it's a little awkward how it's worded I think we're missing uh the word type after the second membership so membership added to another membership type which is defined by the top of this you know section B membership types um it's just like a lot of words remember remember it's like three times um so I don't know if there's a more eloquent way TR understand what you're saying but my more substantive uh question first and then possibly comment depending on how the administration answers it is under number eight so it was my understanding that children um under the age of one at least were not being charged the child guest pass Fe I I asked this question of the administration before the meeting so what was the conclusion from Recreation uh passies a free if it's age one lesser we're now codifying the membership the me we membership types here so this is the opportunity to codify it here can you okay I tend to agree that that would be a reasonable change excuse me I'm sorry mayor I wasn't done with my thought so I actually like to propose that children under the age of two are free I don't feel it's reasonable to have a child who's not walking yet to be charged and it was my understanding that in the past it was under the age of two we free when I asked this question last year though I was told no it's under the age of one but I would like to open this up for conversation was agreement I think there are PL few children under the age of two who walk um but not under the age of one they don't they don't all walk by the age of one so I agree with the one I disagree with except back the age of two I think having it the one is reasonable to codify but I think extending beyond what we've done in the past is what was the recommendation from the rec committee or the what did we do in the past excuse me the rec committee wasn't asked toine on this topic so the rec committee didn't op on it to my awareness so um yeah and and I believe my understanding is that this is opaque in the regulations right so right now you have one provision of the code that says 17 and younger that can go down to a child as young as like days old um elsewhere in the pool rules that come up yearly it has been casually enforced sometimes it's under the age of two sometimes it's under the age of one and so I think what miss m what councilwoman McGrath is seeking is confirmation from the administration at that it should be under the age of two or or from this body but like this was certainly not something that was discussed and it wasn't in the PO Fe recommendations from the rec committee it wasn't a question posed to the rec committee Mar certainly Mr I just like to add to the conversation that this ordinance should not be different than a pool rule the pool does not have the ability by rule to change what's in your ordinance I think that's what councilman H was just saying so you know whether it's one two or days old it needs to be in this ordinance if you're not going to charge yeah yeah and it's a council decision Administration can recommend but you have to adopt the ordinances I'm fine with it changing it two from a year to 17 years of age two years is going a little far our life cars you know we have to account for what the impact of guests are and having a two-year-old child is potentially going to increase the impact on St personally in favor of up to two years um I do think that you do have children my children were over a year before they were able to walk um we actually didn't join the pool at that time because we weren't able to get full full utilization of it because my child was so young um so you know I my understanding is that past practice has gone to two years um this is just for the guest passes so my thought is a 2-year-old isn't coming to the pool without an adult paying a guest pass yeah um or or they're just you know like I'm bringing my niece or my nephew with me to the pool and I a full paying member um when that child is going to largely be napping during the day or only at the pool for like just a matter of like an hour or two I don't think it's a significant constraint however I will acknowledge that there are facilities at that pool that a child that age can utilize so it's not it's not to say that the child isn't going to be able to utilize the pool facilities they most certainly will there's changing tables there is the splash pad and there is the waiting pool which is now Zero Entry so even a child that is just toddling could utilize that but I think there's a recognition that it's like part of you know the family orientation of the pool and certainly we do give other free members ships so you know the understanding that a minor child of that age you know I think it's a reasonable request that being said like I I am struggling with all of these poll fees and so I'm I'm not sure where I'll ultimately land but I do support Miss McGrath as a mom and as somebody that's utilized the pool I do I do support Council woman McGrath's position yes I mean my biggest concern right now is the financial state of the pool uh I say this is a case where we need to do you know we need to air on the side of Revenue generation to avoid subsidizing from taxes um so you know I would be willing to go with one but not with two and this is one of those things where we you know if we are in the wrong direction we can all engage it the following year but uh you know that to me is a fair off especially because all the improvements we just did are you know driven towards younger children and this Council mall and just said a lot of those could be used by children of that age therefore we have to recognize them as you know people that are school facilities even if it's only you know a subset of children age one to Age Two May or any we're talking here $58 per membership whether it's a family or family where the one-year-old is going to pay uh just a couples of 547 rather than 605 I'm sorry we're talking I'm sorry Deputy Mayor we're talking just about the child guest number 18 but that number is going to reflect what they pay to get into a pool correct or not uh I think I think the child gets me $10 for a guest of a member currently 15 oh maybe oh I'm sorry it's 15 right so this is someone who comes in with a with a member as a guest so okay I'm definitely confused on this because if like like what if a couple brings their child their own child in they can say they're a member and this is the child guest correct that would be correct that is an option available to them so so a young couple who has a one-year-old child can go there every day and pay as a couple rather than as a family they could yeah I'm sorry um theut that's that's what that's left that's how I'm reading this too there's going to be ways around this and and um I know like even a caregiver there's there's a whole another thing I'll get into when we get into the fees uh how about we just and and and really we all received an email about uh in the last 24 hours I believe it was about who polices this people this one woman who's been going for 16 years said she doesn't get checked or she's not scanned in every time she goes in so that's an area we got to focus on at the pool this coming year uh so who's going to check how old this child is do we split the deal do we say Okay 18 I'm gonna say 18 months here so there there's in the middle so like what number do we put on this how old is this child like there's so so many ways around it and if it's a year you know people with a 14-month-old child are just going to walk in so uh this is this is a really tough one it's it's you know we're looking at Revenue we spent we overspent on what we did up there uh I I said it before uh we and we have more expenses we have to go through in the next couple years uh where we we need Revenue at this pool so we can have it run on its own uh so I I think a year two years I I really don't think this is going to affect too many people but if it does then we can like the like uh councilman Roman said we we can maybe adjust it next year I I'll get more into this when we talk about the fees next ordinance that's all thank you sure CH councel I just have a very brief error which is item number three two adults uh that reside at the residents I think that should be at the same residence thank a m so um so I was making the suggestion I didn't make a formal motion about changing to two and under is the consensus there or is the consensus one and under think we had a consensus on either two or one yeah two people who have said two we've had two people who said one we've had one person who said 18 months so we lack of consensus um I I'm happy to split the difference at 18 months know the deputy May are you fine with that councilman I 18 we have a consensus on 18 months I will move that we change the language to read as a child guest a child who is no younger than 18 months and no older than 17 is there a second second uh just a show of hands all those in favor I I anybody oppose motion carries the ordinance will be as such any other comments on I just want to point out that um in it's more of a scri error just to tie 11 then back to that age when we talk about a child day pass the age should then be consistent with what we just as to number eight seemed like it would make sense to have a definition section Mr alya Define these terms and then uh we could change the definition that's appropriate in the future rather than change each than on um okay we CH definition the definition section actually because comes the fees family membership we're gon have to re it read more like saying it's clear that it definition applies everywhere but yes yeah Define yeah okay call the call the rooll on this one please Holland yes coun mcra yes counc Roman yes Deputy Mayor maoy yes mayor Timor yes mayor ordinance 83 H3 will be numbered 20209 be published according to law cler which AG read the title of H4 the record the first to 85657 of the codon M CL is a motion motions made by councilman Roman is for a second the deputy mayor a discussion on this item this is specifically the fees Fortune yes any comments uh I was looking through numbers and obviously this and we've talked about this in the past I know councilman Roman there's there's a fine line between if you raise the fees you get less memberships so I'm looking at uh I looked at our seniors specifically and the last time we went through this fee Chang last year I I was I know they were looking to raise senior fees I believe it was 14% uh I was against it they went to from 165 to $175 uh I want to point out that when it was 165 we had 267 seniors that signed up when we bumped into 175 that number dropped from 267 to 154 so we had a loss in Revenue there so my reason for bringing that up we now rais it $27 uh 15% I seriously think we will end up losing money on the senior crowd uh that is a group that cannot afford uh an increase like that so I think we should reconsider uh increasing the senior rate to $22 uh my suggestion would be what the rec committee suggested and go to 185 at the very top I actually think we should leave that the same in hopes of collecting that $27,000 uh because we ended up losing $20,000 from the increase from 165 to 170 I uh I tend to agree with the w mayor on that I think we just introduced an ordinance to dramatically increase the um the water fees as well for people on fixed incomes and uh same point I brought up my objections last year regarding increasing senior rate um I think for reasonable 185 a the economic perspective of crossing the $200 threshold I think is actually pretty likely to cause people to out of membership the most we should be really doing the point 195 and I proba a low rate is more likely to to get us you know higher Revenue this is this whole thing is always a cost you know it's always a cost benefit you know optimization problem trying to get the most membership and I say that we're most successful at the pool when we have the largest number of people joining it that's you know our end goal there both Revenue generation and public enjoyment um and I you know I am worried that we're going to overshoot still here pring the $200 threshold this one I'm sorry I'm really confused so what is your proposal to then make up this lost Revenue you're changing the numbers on the fly so does that mean that families are going to have to pay more and we're crossing we just had that whole conversation about you know guest pass fees for like between one and two year olds this is a very significant change and we're under a time crunch so how are we going to make up this Revenue because what happened last year was that that was then passed on to families and the family rate went up even more we're now talking about crossing the 600 dollar threshold for families and we have 2,800 families you're talking about seniors where their membership is only 280 I mean at the end of the day like how we going to make up that revenue and do you have additional changes sen are only4 it's a reminder to the council that we don't have conversations with one another that the comments are address to the chair apologize is I would like a motion made on the vote to specifically change that the event we fallowing did have a motion before I make a motion I just want to uh comment on on what was said uh my reason for picking this up is if we raise it we're going to lose money uh just like we did my my proposal is go back to the 165 for the seniors because when when it was 165 we got $44,000 from them because 267 memberships were there when we raised it to $175 we only had 154 memberships and it was $26,900 so we lost $188,000 by raising $10 on the senior membership all the other one stayed the same and every email I've received pertaining to the pool fees anyone that's written has said I'm okay to the prices going up but don't don't extend it to people outside of Verona don't do this but I'll pay whatever you guys are going to raise it to and and they seem fine with it I I just I think if we if we raise the seniors to even $185 take that $26,900 we got and cut it in half again I I don't think you're going to receive that revenue from Seniors I'm I'm doing this and I'm bringing this up to to promote more memberships and more Revenue so I I would I even think 185 is too much but I will make a motion instead of raising it to $22 to only raise it to the recommended uh amount that the recreation committee proposed of $185 that motion there any discussion on that motion um Council thank you I really object and I think one of the reasons the finances of this pool are really um not doing well is because for years council members especially now in the last two years are mucking with the rates and adjusting them against the administration's recommendations so if that's what we're doing doing then unfortunately I'm not going to be able to support because I really wanted to take the administration's recommendations as a package deal and the CFO left we're under a time crunch because we really have to introduce today and there's no communication also between council members before we get to the Daya so some of us are now completely blindsided so I really object to all of this this is not well done and so no I don't think that we should be foregoing Revenue when we already realize that we are short on revenue and we're going to have to raise rates again next year significantly and we're planning on raising family rates from 520 to 605 I know that this is it is a hardship uh that these rates are going up but it it's important that it's shared by all pool classes and you know I think I'm getting a lot of feedback that we're going to lose family memberships which I think we should be more concerned about so that is my discussion in terms of this specific change of taking the 202 and lowering it to 185 thank you councilman Holland I would just add that this is where we would be benefited by having a strategic plan and detailed financial analysis and forward looking rate study on the pool and addressing it more as a larger Aquatic Center and other Revenue generation we right now are focusing on fees um as the sole source of Revenue generation for this facility and I think it's a flawed approach he I'm I appreciate that um I'm just pulling up the numbers that I think we have several sets of numbers here which is causing a problem yeah so I'm pulling up a spreadsheet uh that was emailed to us uh by the CFO on February 9th um that that it says additional information additional pool information for the council the numbers that that uh that I see as far as in 20 uh between 2022 and 2023 um there were 267 seniors in 2022 and 283 seniors in 2023 um I think the issue was the co numbers got thrown in there uh when all of the numbers are down but I think we have couple sets of numbers here unfortunately um so Mr dico can you confirm that that spr sheet sent to us on the nth is the accurate spr sheeet Mr so I see you're going I think this is a hey these numbers not consistent um so we have this is the 25 version and it does say for seniors there were 267 memberships in 2022 and 154 in uh 203 but those numbers don't add up with the Excel spreadsheet um so I think that's a b part of this is we have so many different sets of numbers um so I I think it would be helpful to have clarification on that um the I I do agree for discussion on this motion that hitting that $200 Mark is is very high um and I think our we have to provide we we uh just did our entire senior budget and it is not a huge amount we need to provide for our seniors fees are going up uh and seniors are on uh fixed incomes uh quite often and their other things are dependent on rates of return and things like that um so I think that there is a that we don't want necessarily the cost to go to anybody but at the same point um um you have individuals that have more disposable income and less disposable income as a general rule in that way um and even with the the family membership going up is important to note that family memberships going be going up again in the future anyway uh in order to sustain the um the pool fee operation so in comparison to that and what we actually are seeing from surrounding towns are actually still below Parables so so I uh I I tend to agree that $22 is uh is very I mean it's certainly is 195 kind of the you know the reasonable again this is all sort of a test and see what happens and and fix it next year if we overshoot on something like that so I mean I think that a reasonable number to see where it goes would be 195 um it's just a revenue optimization I do think there something about Crossing that you know $22 threshold you can say the same thing about the family membership about crossing the $600 barrier but I don't know I feel like there's a little bit more PR sensitivity from senior than there is from family the family we have gotten the feedback of you know we want to try and you know they'll pay for the the improvements people were not happy about it the largest number of people say they'd rather have that than memberships so I do agree that the spreadsheet from the CFO here does kind of contradict uh the deputy mayor's numbers here it does indicate that we have had this the CFO as well yeah that was three days before yeah so it's all right then which one is which one is correct because yeah this one here does show increasing revenue and increasing mebership numbers in seniors so should think the the difference if we did 190 if we did $195 is $750 at let's say 280 memberships at uh 750 we're talking about um $2,000 so 21 25 50 um I think that certainly Le a number of other memberships that we have good certainly be easily observed s may just as a point of order you do still have the motion pending on the has any discussion on that motion so seems like it's amending not no motion has been made to amend the motion we're having discussion on the motion that was made so at this point we either vote on this motion Deputy Mayor can offer an amendment to his motion uh because we do have that on May or you maintain your motion I'm maintaining my motion I think it's I don't think there's that much increase here I really don't I don't think it's going to be that much of a financial change in this scheme of things and I do think you're going to get more memberships keeping that that feed lower for seniors and just for the record all other Council people were were if you want to call it blindsided with this I didn't discuss this with any other council person prior to this it tends to be My Philosophy to have these discussions in from of the public but I appreciate the suggestion that that was not otherwise the case um any uh will there has been no Advanced discussion of this everything is not a conspiracy okay um I'm going to call for a vote on the deputy mayor's motion to amend the $22.50 fee to $185 we'll do it by roll calls Madam Clark Council Holly no counc McGrath no council Roman I'm sorry Deputy Mayor mwy yes mayor Toro no but at this point I'm going to make a motion to establish the senior fee is $195 I'll second motion the original motion failed for lack of a majority the new motion is on the table to establish s $15 made by the mayor seconded by councilman Roman and just discussion on the $195 hearing none M clerk call the rooll please ccom Holland nocom no councilman Roman yes may yes mayor Toro yes may motion passes 3 to two the amendment is carried M clerk could you please call the role on now on holl no council M no council yes May m yes mayor Toro yes may ordinance H4 passes 3 to2 and it will be number D 24-10 Mar would you agree to read the title of ordinance page five on first reading of the actually I'm sorry I have to relinquish the chair to the deputy mayor for this mayor moving ordinance on first reading H1 uh H H5 H5 H five next on the agenda is first reading Madam clerk could you please read the title of the ordinance into the record in ordinance to amend chapter a565 D7 of the code of CH of Verona pool fees for Volunteer Fire Rescue Squad members someone like to move this anyone like to Second it I'll second it timeus thank you any Council discussion on this Council I just comment that this is another fee ordinance um and so related to the prior fee ordinance I appreciate it's been B bifurcated to enable the mayor's recusal um I do want to note that earlier this evening um there's been discussion about the need for strategic plan and really a more comprehensive and rational approach to the fee structures for the township pool we also did hear about the rescue squad budget um which only really includes a clothing allowance um I think that over time it should be evaluated whether or not the actual po memberships for the rescue squad members should be a budget line item and since that's not the case right now I think that's another flaw in the fee structure if the township is determining that these customers don't have to pay the utility fee then that should be covered by the municipality um but that's not currently how it's structured thank you thank you Council any other comments can you please call the role Council Holland no council mcra yes ran yeso yes I'm sorry um that motion passes 31 one ref CL note that the mayor has resumed the chair please read the title of STS in the record first fixing this compensation paid officers and employ of the township for the 2024 calendar year motion made by is there second second the second is made by the deputy mayor any comments done Madam yes C ran yes mayor M yes mayor Toro yes24 20242 it pass is introduced at one and will be while public hearing be held on Marshall thank you you now please read the title of ordinance H7 is the record for reading ordinance to event chapter 18 committees commissions and Boards Article Five Parks the recreation advisory committee the Ved C M clerk is there a motion so motion motion is made by Council MTH is there second second made by councilman Roman any comments thank you um I propose that we change the uh term for the um chair um say chair yes chair um the chair from two to onee term as that is more consistent with the rest of our boards and committees where the chair serves um at a a one-year term uh year toe as we have new members of the committee that come on um potentially every year so I'm proposing that we change the two-year term to a one-year term do you have a motion M I have a motion to change the two-year term to a one-year term sir second I'll second any discussion on that change proposed by the motion by Council he all those in favor I I anybody opposed motions carried the draft ordinance will be amended to read that the term is one year you call the role on H7 pleas Council Holland yes Council m yes Council en Roman yes mayor maoy yes mayor T yes may H7 will be number 20243 um P 5 an introduction and public it will be Public Law Public hearing will be held on March 11 and um just for clarification the current code right now doesn't have a term I I think one year is correct I don't know why I put two in like that absolutely welcome all right um okay at this point we're move on to the consent agenda this evening's consent agenda we have two sets of minutes sorry May yes I fail to give you guys to February 5th so sorry once at a minutes there are nine resolutions and there is one license uh for the it's a liqu license expansion for watching scenes LLC this would be to allow the two adjoining buildings to use the same liquor license as is consistent with state law and previous traditional decisions on that topic um any somebody like to move the consent so I heard the sorry I heard the councilman McGrath is there a second second seconds made by the deputy mayor it's time I'm going to call for public comment on the items only same public comment statement applies but of course one can only um comments on the consent agenda no public comment I'm going to close public comments this time is there any Council discussion on the N Ro Council Holland yes yes woman yes Deputy Mayor M yes K1 K9 including L1 and including 1550 work thank you madam clerk we do have one item on addendum tonight this is a uh this will be M1 which is a budget transfer within Department somebody please move M1 motions made by the deputy mayor is there a second second seconds made by council malland at this time I'll call for public comments on the M1 only the same public comments applies none I will close public comments any Council discussion none mad cler call Council M Holland yes Council MCG yes Council ran yes yes may T yes may24 d51 thank you m cler uh we are moving to New on business the first item is the sh servic are you prepar to it's prepared it's going to the port ofed first look at the draft before it comes back in case need edits but that is completed and we are resurrected and agreement dated for parking spaces in un parking lots hasn't been reviewed for Year yes so that'll hopefully completed so you'll be discussing this next month fantastic any other of VI business all right at this time I will open for public comments on any agenda item same public comments stage app pleas say your name Cory sha Verona I just want to say thank you for the discussion on everything tonight um the pool fees and the recreational department no matter um you know I as we started the pool discussion uh several months ago um I felt that obviously the fees needed to be increased so to sustain the pool and it's going to take many many years to sustain it and so there are disagreements tonight but I think no matter what those dis disagreements are as a community we all need to move together to fix what we need to go going forward and I'm sure the U direct committee will continue our work and try to come up with a long-term comprehensive plan I agree with a lot of council members here and uh that's something that we'll take into advisement and um if some fees were $15 more here 200 there I don't think it's really going to make a difference at this point I think a conf comprehensive plan um as councilwoman Holland said I think that's a good strategic approach that we need and I think we all need to work together to do it because I think that's a beautiful beautiful pool and something the community will very much enjoy so thank you for your work and um let's get the word thank you close follow comments um we will not be having executive session tonight cor no no this point name yes thank you um one Administration did hear the request comprehensive uh external review the PO Kevin and I have that in motion we're talking to a firms now um hopefully we'll be as good as in order the other comment is for your veterans uh the PMD mobile uh van is coordinated out of my office and they're on a schedule every year here and for the veterans in the community in addition to getting your license identified if you're a disabled vet and you bring in your certification of disability by the Veterans Administration you get free parking blackards that you can park anywhere in the state at a meter a municipal public parking lot including uh the stadium on L so they bring in their VA certification of disability they get a part placard it looks similar to the disabled placard different color it's red white and blue and if they're a Purple Heart recipient they get a pler that identifies them as a purple heart recipient and they get the same benefit for parking throughout the state of New Jersey thank you to Veterans just one comment before I think you're going to do what you're going to do uh I had a comment okay I would say that I that I also used the like Mr Ryan I used the services of the Mobile DMV unit this weekend as well and I greatly appreciated that I just wanted to share my appreciation to both senat M's office and Philip's office reaching out when these appointments were being done to ensure that we wanted them and uh I appreciate their applicating for us even before they were our official elect officials that's for Roman would you like to make a motion i' like to make a motion to seconds all those in favor I I anybody oppos or you may stay motions carry the meetings of turn at 1016 it's better than